Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Long Fanyun steeled himself for his meeting with prince Duodun. “The Dragon King’s closed door cultivation is in a critical phase, and it will take him at least another three days to reach a safe stopping point. Many apologies, Your Highness.”
Although Duodun had been drinking for more than half the previous night, there was no sign of weariness or drunkenness on his face at all. As he stared at Long Fanyun, the look on Duodun’s face was rather arrogant and callous. “Three days? Isn’t that approximately the amount of time it takes to travel from Jade City to Xiaowan Kingdom? On a swift horse, of course.”
Long Fanyun pretended that he hadn’t grasped the insinuations of prince Duodun’s remarks, placidly replying, “Three days won’t be enough unless it’s the Flame Foal.”
“Ha-ha, hmm. Another three days, huh? Is this your own speculation or did the Dragon King tell you this himself?”
“The Dragon King told me this himself-”
Before Long Fanyun could finish his sentence, Duodun abruptly stood up. Seemingly anticipating their prince’s move, several of Duodun’s companions who were always by his side immediately surrounded Long Fanyun solidly as if they intended on capturing him right then and there.
Yet no conflict took place. There was a slight movement of Long Fanyun’s hand, but he didn’t touch his saber hilt. These men’s intention was merely to isolate him from their prince. Duodun then said, “Very good. Since the Dragon King has talked to you, then it shouldn’t be a problem for him to talk to me for a minute. It won’t take long, but I need a response from the Dragon King himself. Let’s go downtown right now, as I need to return to Heaven’s Pass by noon.”
Long Fanyun appeared a little flustered. He glanced at Shangguan Ru and Shang Liao, but those two clearly knew that they couldn’t stop prince Duodun, and that the harder they tried to persuade Duodun otherwise, the more suspicious he would become.
The hundreds of people departed in the early morning and soon entered the city.
Half of the 10,000 cavalrymen that Gu Shenwei brought back from the Royal Court were stationed outside of the city, and they were enjoying the food and wine brought out by prince Duodun last night. As they were stationed in the city, the other half gave an enthusiastic welcome to the prince at the city gate, with loud cheers in Norland language, infecting the nearby residents, many of whom started crowding around the street.
Long Fanyun was very embarrassed – nominally, the Dragon King was the leader of this army, and yet he had never received a welcome as warm as this.
The Second Consort was among the procession. She gave Shangguan Ru a meaningful look, and then, under the cover of the noises of the crowds, she softly whispered, “Back in the Royal Court, the Khan’s descendants were everywhere, so the soldiers were too confused to display their loyalty – the Dragon King might have misunderstood something because of this. But Duodun’s different. He’s exceptional even when compared to all the other princes. And now you’ve seen it yourself. Maybe you should talk about this with the Dragon King when you have the chance.”
Shangguan Ru responded to her with nothing more than a smile. She knew that all the young officers like Azheba were truly loyal to Duodun and that it was them who had been instilling the image of prince Duodun being noble and great into the soldiers’ minds. This thought raised a question in her mind. Why would did the Dragon King let this happen? Was it because of carelessness or because he had other plans?
Dragon King had always been shrouded with mystery from Shangguan Ru’s point of view. Even back when they were young and innocent, that teenager called Servant Huan had frequently given her surprises and mysteries. Now it was even more difficult for her to speculate on the Dragon King’s thoughts.
The capital of Xiaowan Kingdom was not a large city, and the procession soon arrived at the entrance of the royal palace, where Duodun had encountered an enormous hindrance.
Chu Nanping was standing in the middle of the gateway, with two swords, one of which was the Dragon Head Sword that the Dragon King had given to him, hanging on his waist.
A dozen palace guards were standing quite a distance away, equally in awe of both the teenager and the prince of Norland.
Four bodyguards jumped off of their horses, walked towards Chu Nanping, and ordered him to get out of the way.
Chu Nanping ignored the bodyguards and loudly announced, “the Dragon King’s in closed door cultivation. No entry is allowed without an explicit invitation.”
“This is prince Duodun, the Army Supervisor of the Norland Cavalry, not someone uninvited,” a bodyguard said angrily, his hand grasping his saber hilt.
Without even giving them a glance, Chu Nanping continued talking. “The prince may go in, but he has to do so alone.”
Duodun let out a short laugh and it was hard to tell whether the laugh was a surprised chortle or a sneering mockery. His eyes swept around his party and then focused on Shangguan Ru before he asked, “Does the Dragon King like playing these kinds of tricks very much?”
Shangguan Ru shook her head as she replied, “This is a basic principle of closed door cultivation. The quieter, the better. That way, he’ll be able to keep miscellaneous thoughts out of his mind.”
“Does the fight for supremacy count as a miscellaneous thought?”
“During closed door cultivation, anything other than martial arts is irrelevant. This is the true essence of closed door cultivation.”
“It sounds like the theory those Central Plain guys used to delude the Khan with.”
“This is the rule. Please understand, Your Highness.”
Two companions of prince Duodun got off of their horses as well and started negotiating with Chu Nanping and Long Fanyun, but the biggest concession that the teenage swordsman was willing to make was to allow three people to enter the palace.
Watching from the side, Duodun didn’t give any instructions. At last he said, “Okay, then. Since Dragon King wants to become an immortal, we mortals shouldn’t be too stubborn. Three of us will go inside. Azheba, I, and-”
Before he could finish his remark, all the others opposed in unison. They refused to let their prince take any risk. They trusted the Dragon King, but this palace belonged to Shangguan Yun and they were not sure whether there were any hidden dangers in it.
People started arguing, and eventually the Second Consort came up with an idea. “A king would never kneel to another king, so you shouldn’t go inside yourself, Your Highness. You have so many trustworthy men, and it makes no difference who actually enters the palace. I don’t think that they would make any mistakes.”
After pondering for a while, Duodun reluctantly agreed to her plan. He designated Azheba, another companion of his, and Shangguan Ru for the final spot.
“I’m not your subordinate,” Shangguan Ru refused with a smile as she pointed out Duodun’s mistake.
“Of course you’re not. But two men are more than enough to send a message, so I’d like to give you a chance to meet the Dragon King.”
Shangguan Ru exchanged an glance with Long Fanyun – this was not a part of their plan. “Well… Okay, then. Thank you for giving me this precious opportunity, Your Highness.”
Duodun smiled but didn’t say anything as he thought, ‘If there’s really something going on between this woman and the Dragon King, I might be able to figure out the truth behind whether the Dragon King is really in the palace is true or not when she comes out.’
While Long Fanyun and the others were having a hard time dealing with prince Duodun, Gu Shenwei was stranded in Heaven’s Pass.
He couldn’t speed anything up. The meetings with Old Hong and Madam Meng as well as the efforts needed to evade the surveillance of Golden Roc Castle both required a certain amount of time. And there were also some issues in Heaven’s Pass that required his immediate attention.
“We don’t have any money left/” Xu Xiaoyi knew that the Dragon King never liked pleasantries, so he went straight to the point. “Currently I have nothing but a bunch of unpaid debts. And I think that in less than ten days, the creditors will find out the truth about the Dragon Army’s financial situation, which would be a disaster.”
Gu Shenwei had anticipated this situation in advance. “It’s okay. We’ll get rich really soon.”
“You convinced the Meng family?” Xu Xiaoyi was overjoyed even though he had every bit of confidence in the Dragon King. Just from the thought of Meng family’s enormous wealth, Xu Xiaoyi’s mature face tensed up in excitement, and enthusiasm appeared in his eyes as if he had changed back to the person he used to be. “When is it going to arrive? I’ll be able to handle the creditors if I know the details.”
Yet the Dragon King’s next move threw a wet blanket over Xu Xiaoyi’s fiery exhilaration. “This batch of money won’t be under your management. From now on, you just have to focus on collecting intelligence.”
Xu Xiaoyi was shocked and depressed. The beard he had been growing for a long time quivered awkwardly as if it was going to fall off. “Did I do something wrong, Dragon King? I swear, I never stole a single copper from the money I dealt with. If there’s any money missing, however small the amount is, I’ll hand it over right now.”
“You don’t have to. Actually you should save some money for yourself and your elder sister as you’ve done a good job. If it weren’t for you, I would’ve spent all of the money a lot earlier.”
“But-”
“This is one of the conditions of the Meng family. They want someone they trust to manage the finances.”
“All right,” Xu Xiaoyi felt a stabbing pain in his heart – the Meng family in the Northern Jade City was the richest family in the West Regions, and if he could manage their countless assets… He couldn’t bear thinking about it anymore. “From now on, I’ll manage those small accounts for the Dragon King.”
“No. All you have to do is collect intelligence. Hand over all your economic accumulations to the Meng family.”
“What?!” Xu Xiaoyi jumped up in shock. If he had to hand over some of his responsibilities, he wanted it to be the intelligence gathering aspect. “How can you trust them, Dragon King? They’ve been with good terms with Golden Roc Castle for generations. When a crisis arises, they’ll surely betray you and deal a… What’s that word?”
“A counterblow.”
“Yes, a counterblow. Dragon King, it’s okay if you want someone else to handle the money, but it can’t be someone from the Meng family.”
“Let’s give it a shot. As long as you keep one eye open, I think we’ll be fine.”
“Are you saying that…?”
“We can never have too much intelligence.”
Xu Xiaoyi giggled as he changed stances and said, “Well, then. The Meng family will be in charge of the Dragon King’s money, and I’ll monitor the Meng family for the Dragon King. Alas… Exactly how much money do they have? Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions?”
“That’s part of the intelligence you’ll have to collect.”
“When’s the Meng family guy going to arrive? I think I have some handing over to do.”
“He’s already arrived.”
An hour later, Xu Xiaoyi met the person who was both his successor and his rival. He opened his mouth yet was unable to say a word for quite a while.
Xiao Fengchai smiled as he replied, “Although I get this expression a lot when men see me, yours is a little more dramatic than most.”
“How are you a member of Meng family? Second Young… Meng Mingshu… So this was the reason of your quarrel.”
In order to leave Jade City without arousing anyone’s suspicion, Xiao Fengchai and Meng Mingshu had made quite a scene. They had a terrible fight against each other and nearly tore the house down. All the prostitutes in Pleasure Alley had taken a day off to watch the fight. The night when Xiao Fengchai had declared her decision to leave Jade City for good, all of the prostitutes had served their customers with unprecedented hospitality.
“Second Brother trusts me and has put me in charge of the family assets. It seems that we’ll be seeing each other a lot more often from now on.”
“I’m honored,” Xu Xiaoyi responded, in awe of both the Meng family and the Dragon King. He found it incredible that the Meng family would entrust such a huge sum of money to a woman. But this woman was the most famous prostitute in all of Jade City, and even his own elder sister Xu Yanwei, who had worked very hard for so many years in the same profession, was still a far cry from reaching this woman’s fame. Thus, he felt that what had happened was reasonable and that his defeat by this woman was not really that humiliating. Actually, it was almost a reward that they would be “seeing each other a lot more often.”
After helping Xiao Fengchai settle down, Lü Qiying came to consult the Dragon King about the issue of delivering the provisions out of the Heaven’s Pass. It was already the afternoon when Gu Shenwei finished all the discussions, so he decided to depart at night.
Xu Xiaoyi had been shocked ever since receiving the news that he would have to hand over his financial powers and it was quite a while later that he suddenly recalled that he still had a lot of intelligence to report to the Dragon King. After taking a while to prioritize them, Xu Xiaoyi started reporting.
News about Shangguan Ru was at the bottom of the list.
“Tenth Young Master… has a lot of friends, and an amazing drinking capacity – the men working for me have admitted defeat.”
“Who did she meet?” Gu Shenwei asked, remembering the inexplicable warning of Madam Meng.
“That guy named Azheba visited several times and Duodun sends people there all the time. Dragon King, Duodun hasn’t given up yet, so you have to be careful. And there’re also some other Norland officers. I have their names written down here. Er…”
“Anything unusual?”
Actually what surprised Xu Xiaoyi the most was the fact that the Dragon King cared so much about Shangguan Ru even though he didn’t seemed to trust her very much. Xu Xiaoyi had always been on the Dragon King’s side, so he immediately changed his perspective on Shangguan Ru and felt that he had made a terrible mistake by not having informed the Dragon King earlier of a particular message.
“Several days ago, a mysterious guest paid a visit to Tenth Young Master
